One day I hopped on a plane in Beijing bound for Pyongyang. Below are some photos from my journey. The photos are completely out of order. Deal with it.

Two woman at a memorial in Pyongyang

 

At the DMZ with the DPRK’s tallest and fittest, South Korea is behind me.

On a military base along the southern border. Had a long conversation with this guy.

 

The zoo (an actual zoo)

In Pyongyang

 

Women washing clothes in the river, about 150km south of Pyongyang

Official Government vehicles at a presentation. We almost never saw private cars. Only military and government.

 

 

The two photos above are in the secret hidden floor in our hotel, I think maybe between the 7th and 8th floor, but I forget.

 

A room in the secret floor in our hotel. Some guy was monitoring TVs when I entered, possibly feeds from guest’s rooms. Ended up running for it, wasn’t caught.

 

More posters from the hidden floor.

 

 

 

Me in the hidden floor.

 

Poster in the hidden floor.

 

In Pyongyang, about to drive south

 

In Pyongyang, these buses come from Russia – apparently old buses donated to the DPRK. If you watched the show Chernobyl on HBO you’ll see these buses in the scene where they are evacuating the people from their towns.

More secret floor posters. My guess is these are in storage, I don’t know why they’d be hung down here.

 

Near Kumchon. People farming manually. No tractors or power equipment.

 

Several hills were stripped of vegetation and farmed.

 

Supposedly bombed by UN forces, possibly burned.

 

Observation post, viewing the North/South border, about 20km east of the DMZ monkey house.

 

Capitalism in North Korea. This woman was selling little rice cake type things. Using DPRK currency and RMB.

School children, maybe 100km south of Pyongyang.

 

Daily Life

 

At the DMZ

 

More manual farming

 

 

 

Daily life along the highway leading to Kaesong

 

Pyongyang in the evening

 

A presentation in Pyongyang

 

Public transportation in Pyongyang

 

Supermarket. We asked to go inside but weren’t allowed in this one.

 

Telling us all about the imperialists Americans

 

Want an authentic Italian restaurant? Easy, just kidnap some Italian chefs.

 

Evil Imperialists American warship

 

Countries created by Russia (China, North Korea, etc.)
have a penchant for long descriptive names

 

Just about the only advertising you’ll see in North Korea. Actually, there is one billboard advertisement for a Chinese-North Korea made truck. One.

 

We did manage to look in here. No photos.

 

 

In Pyongyang

 

Soldiers marching through the woods on a happy journey

 

More daily life of the rich and famous in Pyongyang

 

Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Kim Il Sung’s mausoleum

 

OK I seem to have taken a lot of photos of buses.

 

A small shop for the well off.

 

On the metro

 

Basic goods shop for the well off

 

Music the shops are required to play. When the power went
off they were slow to restart the music.

 

Where Kim Il Sung went to school after being born jumping
out of a unicorn’s butt. Obviously a top marks student

 

I sort of got into trouble for taking this photo

 

Nearby a science museum

 

We often had minders close by. The trick was to act like you weren’t taking photos and be all sneaky.

 

View from my hotel. You could see the smoke pouring out of the coal fired power plant.

 

Flying back to Beijing

 

Bye!